CFB Playoff Picture: Top 4 remain unchanged for championship week

The CFB Playoff picture should remain unchanged for the top four teams after another exciting week of college football.

It’s hard to believe the CFB playoff picture is already coming into focus, but that’s exactly the case as the college football regular season has concluded and we are off to championship week. It was a great weekend of games, including some exciting matchups on Friday involving the fourth ranked Iowa Hawkeyes, a close call for Clemson, and a couple of blowouts.

Teams are certainly rising and falling outside the top four, but those teams should remain unchanged after this week.

Let’s take a look at how each team fared this week, and who might be some of the biggest movers in the rankings.

1. Clemson Tigers

The Tigers remain undefeated after a little scare against South Carolina, where they won by just five points. South Carolina pulled within five points in the fourth quarter, but the Tigers were able to extend the lead and put the game out of reach. Maybe if South Carolina had some more time…

Clemson remains undefeated and will likely keep the top spot in this week’s rankings. They haven’t done anything to lose that spot other than play in a close game, but the ACC championship game against North Carolina will be huge. Speaking of UNC, the Tar Heels improved to 11-1 on the season and have as good a chance of anyone to knock off the Tigers.

Carolina ranked 14th coming into this week’s matchup against NC State, but I suspect they’ll have a spot in the top 10 this week and I feel like this ACC title game could be a play-in game for either of these two teams.

2. Alabama Crimson Tide

In addition to a blowout 29-13 victory over Auburn in the Iron Bowl, the Crimson Tide may have solidified the Heisman Trophy winner by giving Derrick Henry a whopping 46 carries, and he did the rest of the work with 273 yards rushing.

Henry has had a special season, and the Crimson Tide have a chance at cementing their CFB playoff spot with a win against Florida in the SEC championship game. Florida has played much better football this season under Jim McElwain, but they looked absolutely terrible against Florida State on Saturday.

Alabama should roll in that game, but you just never know. I don’t see them going anywhere but up to no. 1 in case Clemson loses next week.

3. Oklahoma Sooners

Because the Big 12 doesn’t have a conference championship game (what is wrong with you?), Oklahoma had to make a statement against Oklahoma State, and they put an exclamation point on what was one of the best months of football we’ve seen from any team in the country.

There’s been really no answer for the Sooners of late with multiple 150 yard rushers against OSU this week and a very confident Baker Mayfield at quarterback.

Watching Oklahoma on Saturday night was truly a sight to see, as they were seemingly able to move the football down the field at will. We’ve heard this story before from the Sooners and head coach Bob Stoops, but this team has a special glow to it. They will definitely remain in the top four this week.

4. Iowa Hawkeyes

The Hawkeyes didn’t have a third down conversion on Friday against Nebraska, and they didn’t need it. We wrote about how they needed to continue to play the exact brand of football they have been all season to get to the Big Ten championship game unscathed, and that’s exactly what they did.

The Hawkeyes constantly catch grief for not winning ‘pretty’ but this one was a thing of beauty as Jordan Canzeri burst for 140 rushing yards and two touchdowns, C.J. Beathard threw another, and the defense tacked on one of its own to beat the Huskers. The Iowa defense took advantage of Tommy Armstrong, who threw four interceptions in the losing effort.

It wasn’t the Hawkeyes’ biggest point differential of the year, but it was a big victory and Iowa will have a play-in game against Michigan State in the Big Ten title game.

5. Michigan State Spartans

The Spartans dominated Penn State to earn their trip to the Big Ten title game to face off against Iowa, and they are playing confident right now. This team has gotten away with highway robbery in a couple of games this season, but they are where they are and they have a chance to solidify a playoff spot this coming week.

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6. Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Notre Dame lost to Stanford in one of the most heartbreaking games of their season. They drove the football all the way down the field in a back-and-forth game and seemingly had it in the bag before Kevin Hogan and Stanford pushed the ball downfield to get into field goal range, where they won it.

All in all, a very good season for the ailing Irish, but they just couldn’t come up with a big win here when they needed it.

7. Baylor Bears

Baylor was beaten by TCU this week with their #3 quarterback by TCU, effectively ending their pursuit for a CFB playoff spot. It was a close game in 2OT, but the Big 12 will have one team vying for the CFB playoff at this point and that team is going to be Oklahoma.

8. Ohio State Buckeyes

Ohio State should jump up to the 6th overall spot in this week’s rankings, and they have the luxury of waiting for other teams to lose. Of course, there are no guarantees, but with their drubbing of Michigan, Ohio State is certainly going to be an attractive team to the CFB Playoff committee after their championship run a year ago.

If this team climbs up to 5th or 6th in the new poll, they have a chance to be selected by the playoff committee if, say, Michigan State wins and Clemson and/or Alabama loses.

9. Stanford Cardinal

One of the most impressive wins of the week, Stanford overcame some really bad clock management at the end of their game against Notre Dame to keep their playoff hopes alive. An early season loss to Northwestern had this team downtrodden, but Kevin Hogan has played some really great football.

Christian McCaffrey was held in check in this week’s game, but with two losses, the Cardinal could sneak into the CFB playoff with a win this week against USC and some help from other teams.

10. Michigan Wolverines

The first year of the Jim Harbaugh era in Michigan won’t end in a CFB playoff berth, but it was a good year for the Wolverines who were absolutely destroyed by Ohio State on Saturday afternoon.

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